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Wednesday, June 8, 2016

The Move - Looking On (Deluxe Edition)

As you probably know, Esoteric Recordings have reissued the
Move catalog. The band were the combination in my previous blogs of my champion
and my love about them with the sounds of; Psychedelic, Garage, Hard, Symphonic,
Glam, and Progressive Rock. We are going to look at the 2-CD reissue set of
their third album entitled, Looking On. Originally
released in December of 1970 on the Fly label and on Capitol in the States, the
band moved (no-pun attended) away from the psych-pop sounds and headed into a
heavier, glam, blues, and prog approach.

Jeff Lynne of The Idle Race joined up with The Move after
Carl Wayne’s departure. Both he and Roy were a perfect match, a perfect team,
and a perfect combination between the two of them. And one of those moments, it
would become one of the early beginnings of the Electric Light Orchestra (E.L.O).
The recording of the album took place between from May to September of that
year. When the album was released in the winter of that year, it didn’t do well
and tanked.

The label decided to move forward with Roy’s friend, the late
great Marc Bolan and his critical achievement with T. Rex. It was ahead of it’s
time and now with the Esoteric reissue of the overlooked and hidden treasure of
the band’s lost classic. But let’s get straight to the music. The arrival of
Lynne is a turning point. When you listen to the track, What, the composition is a sinister, ominous, and heavier opus from
the vocalizations between Wood and Lynne. You get the haunting guitar rhythm sections
that the two of them do.

From the riffs and heavier drum sounds, wah-wah effects, and
the melodic sounds are the ingredients that are on the composition. The
incarnation of E.L.O is evidential. From the sliding blues and string section
with a roaring ride into the burst of the ‘50s rock sounds from the piano on When Alice Comes Back to the Farm. And Turkish Tram Conductor Blues feels like
something straight out of the sessions of On
the Third Day.

You can hear the riffs that resemble the styles of Ma-Ma-Ma Belle with the ‘70s Glam killer
grooves that the rhythm and lead handle and punching sax solos followed by
acoustic guitar solo and roughened up and in your face vocals that Roy Wood
does that gives it the driven electrical output. The opening 7-minute and 50
second title track, sees the influences of Psych, Heavy, and Middle-eastern
flavors followed by a little bit of an homage to Zappa’s intro of What’s the Ugliest Part of your Body from
the piano sounds of the inspirational references.

Open Up Said the World
at the Door is one of their progressive. Jeff and Roy sharing vocals
followed by an electric sitar, crumhorn, and bits of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Flight of the Bumblebee and Rick Price’s
bass and guitars following along the midtempo groove before Bev’s intense drum
solo and Ravel-sque dramatic rhythm of the classical styles, is thunderous and
strong with the dooming guitar solo in between. Then it’s back into the Glam
saddle with the killer, Brontosaurus.

Originally released as a single and reaching number 7 in
April of that year, Roy is on top of his game. We have the heavier riffs,
boogie-woogie piano, acoustic rhythm, and the styles of Slade comes to mind
followed by a bluesy-slide guitar work with fast driven sections that will get
you back into the dance floor. The closer, Feel
Too Good, is Soul Classical Hard Rock at it’s best.

Featuring Jeff on the drums, roaring bass work, more of the
sliding guitar lines and featuring background vocals from PP Arnold and the
late Doris Troy. I love Rick’s bass lines on here. Rick and the piano work done
by Jeff himself, the two of them work very well as Lynne would trade off his
classical and ‘50s chops to capture the glory days of Rock and Roll.

The track
would later be in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 classic, Boogie Nights which was my introduction to the band’s music. Not to mention the humoristic hidden track of the doo-wop
operatic touch, The Duke of Ediburgh’s
Lettuce which closes the album off and shows that The Move had a great
sense of humor. The bonus tracks on here features two takes of the title track
and a rough mix of Turkish Tram Conductor’s
Blues. And a rare Mono US Radio promo release of Brontosaurus.

The essence of Bowie and Bolan grows stronger as Rick Price
takes over Lead Vocals on the B-side single of Brontosaurus, Lightnin’ Never Strikes Twice while the BBC sessions
recorded from March to July of 1970, gives more of what is to come. The slowed-down
and fuzz-tone rocked out version of The Beatles’ She’s A Woman done by Wood gives it almost a take of Birmingham’s
own Black Sabbath while the unearthed composition of Jeff Lynne’s Falling Forever, shows Jeff at his touch
of a break-up and coming back again song. It has the essence of his days with
The Idle Race thrown in.

There’s also interviews with Bev Bevan and along with Roy
Wood one of which was done by BBC DJ Brian Matthew and one by a radio
journalist on The Move’s direction into a classical and symphonic rock
approach. The 2-CD set contains a poster of the band’s third album which
includes rare articles about them along with a 20-page booklet containing liner
notes by Mark Paytress, photos and interviews with Bev Bevan, Rick Price, and
Roy in which he did an interview from Trouser Press and BBC’s Disco 2.

The band released one more album in which it was their
fourth entitled, Message from the Country
in 1971 and then The Move was no more. It was now the Electric Light
Orchestra as they released their debut album, No Answer. Roy would soon depart from the band after walking out
for the sessions for the band’s second follow-up due to the tension between him
and Lynne and the manager, Don Arden, who was Sharon Osbourne’s father.

Roy would later form his own band in the styles of the Beach
Boys, Big Band, and Glam Rock with Wizzard. He would also work with Renaissance’s Annie
Haslam with the release of her first solo album on the production side with Annie in Wonderland in 1977. Jeff would
later achieve success with the Electric Light Orchestra and as a producer with
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, George Harrison, and he would later be with The Travelling Wilburys, and his dream of working the Beatles on their 2-CD set Anthology's 1 & 2 on the tracks Free as a Bird and Real Love.

The Move never got the recognition they deserve. While they
were way ahead of their time, they created magic from the singles, albums, and
the psych, glam, and prog styles showed that they were powerful, energetic, and
raw. Looking On shows the adventures
of the sounds of the Progressive Rock genre and it still sounds heavier and in
your face 46 years later.

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About Me

I'm a blogger/freelance writer from Houston, TX who writes album reviews because I enjoy it. Even though, I'm not the best writer, there is no stop sign for me. I have a love of Progressive Rock music, Jazz Fusion, and Early Heavy Metal music from the '60s to the early '80s. I went to HCC (Houston Community College) for nine years and have completed my degree in Music in Performance: Jazz Studies. I've been writing Progressive Rock and Symphonic Metal reviews starting back in 2008 on my blogsite and it never gets old.